Spirit Invictus Complete Series by Mark Tiro

Author:Mark Tiro [Tiro, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781948037068
Publisher: Second Dharma Books
Published: 2019-02-19T22:00:00+00:00

33

But for the outburst from the protesters in the audience, the bailiffs rushing in from neighboring courtrooms to subdue and remove the offending parties, the wails and shrieks from David’s wife, and the histrionics from the DA—the plea went off without a hitch.

Later that afternoon, after she had fully delineated the evidence for the record, the judge announced her ruling before the now fully-packed courtroom. She shocked absolutely no one when she dismissed the murder charge against David. It’s what she did next that stunned almost everyone. Maya included. Judge Elanjian ruled that the evidence had established only a vehicular manslaughter. A misdemeanor, with no gross negligence. Basically nothing more than a very tragic accident.

Despite the judge’s pre-lunch comments, Maya had nonetheless expected that she would, at most, reduce David’s charges to a felony manslaughter. She had heard similar comments from judges so many times over the years. Those had turned out to be nothing more than hollow attempts to try to pressure DAs into doing what those judges themselves had the authority, but not the will, or the backbone, to do.

Judge Elanjian, on her last day as a judge—before her retirement became final and before her leftover cake was even gone—had proven that she had an abundance of both.

It’s what she did after that, however, that made Maya lose her breath. Quite simply, in all her years as a lawyer, she had never seen anything like it before. Judge Elanjian turned to her and offered to take David’s plea. To the misdemeanor charge. And to sentence him on the spot, right then and there.

“Of course. My client would appreciate that.” Maya’s voice faltered for the first time that day. “Thank you Your Honor.” It was all she could do to get these last few words out.

A couple minutes later, when the judge had just about finished taking his plea, David leaned over and whispered to Maya, “Thank you. Do you think—”

“Yes David. Yes, I do,” Maya whispered back, not waiting for him to finish his question. “With your credits, you’re maxed out now. They’ll have to release you sometime today. Technically by midnight, but most likely by four or five in the afternoon. Probably from the back of the courthouse here.” She whispered this into his ear, to make sure there was no chance anyone else could overhear. Defeat, Maya had learned the hard way many years earlier, could always be snatched from the jaws of victory—if you pissed off a DA, or even a judge, enough by gloating about it.

David listened to Maya whisper, as the judge went on reading the about-to-be time-served sentence.

“After the DA appeals, or takes a writ or whatever it is, I’m not even sure—at some point I would guess that an appellate court is going to reverse the whole thing, and they’ll try to take you back into custody.”

The judge was done talking now. The bailiff was leading David out of the courtroom, as quickly as she could before the stunned audience had a chance to react to what had just happened.

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